The Tennessee Aquarium's yellow anaconda lives with a school of piranhas and peacock bass. Yellow anaconda spend a good deal of time in the water, but they also like to rest in trees.

The yellow anaconda is related to the green anaconda, which is one of the largest snakes in the world, reaching lengths of over thirty feet and a width of more than one foot. The yellow anaconda, like other members of the boa family, is a relatively primitive snake that retains a small and unused pelvic girdle and hind limbs. The "limbs" are visible in both males and females as external spurs on either side of the excretory and reproductive tract. Spurs are larger in males and are used in courtship and mating to stimulate the female. Males are smaller than females.